Latest Jobs

Luweero: DP's Nabukenya reclaims seat

Democratic Party's (DP) Brenda Nabukenya has reclaimed her parliamentary seat after winning the Luweero woman MP by-election by a huge margin. Nabukenya beat her closest contender NRM's Nalwanga convincingly by over 16, 000 votes in an election that that had been seen as a two-horse race.

Friday May 23 2014

PHOTO BY Dominic Bukenya.

Advertisement

By Stephen Kafeero

Luweero. Ms Brenda Nabukenya, the Democratic Party candidate in the Luwero woman MP by-election has won the hotly-contested race.

The seat fell vacant after the court ruled that Ms Nabukenya was irregularly elected, faulting the Electoral Commission (EC) for refusing to conduct a vote recount as requested by Ms Rebecca Nalwanga, the NRM candidate.

However, it was politics thereafter as each accused the other’s supporters of perpetrating election malpractices. At several polling stations, there were complaints of missing names from voters’ registers and delays to kick off polling.

“There are a lot of people who have been stopped from voting because their names don’t appear on the register and this is not good,” said Ms Nalwanga. “But I am confident we are going to win,” she added. Ms Nabukenya voted at around 10:33am. She arrived at the polling station in a convoy of six vehicles chauffeured by Mukono Municipality MP Betty Nambooze.

At the polling station, she found Ms Nalwanga with whom she exchanged pleasantries before she voted. In her cheeky trademark, she said if she wins, President Museveni would not return to Luweero, considering that residents would have cast a vote of no confidence to the government that they assisted to bring in power.

However, Ms Nabukenya attacked the EC over missing names, saying was incompetent. Mr Jotham Taremwa the EC spokesperson said allegations made by Ms Nabukenya and her team was baseless, adding they had not received a formal complaint from them. The election was also generally peaceful with a few skirmishes of violence. At some polling stations, officials delayed to arrive leaving voters stranded. At Kasoma Zone Our Lady Primary School, there was a mix up of the voting materials and it took the intervention of the polling officials to calm the angry residents.In the evening however, the FDC women leader, Ms Ingrid Turinawe was arrested. Police spokesperson in Savannah Region Lameck Kigozi said she wanted to force herself into the tally centre. Other candidates were independents; Ms Faridah Namubiru and Ms Ramula Kadala.